Storm Clouds Gather

Lin Fan had only tossed out a few basic facts from his previous life to the Firmament, but outside it, the Douluo Continent had erupted!

Heaven Dou Empire, the imperial palace.

Bang!

Xue Ye smashed the solid-gold dragon-carved desk before him with one slap. His well-kept face had turned deathly pale, and beads of cold sweat the size of soybeans rolled down his forehead like rain.

"He's mad... He's gone mad! He's inciting rebellion! He's digging up the ancestral graves of both empires and the nobility!" Xue Ye roared, but his voice was full of fear.

For he had made a terrifying discovery. Among the once-loyal royal knights outside the hall, the low-ranking guards born as commoners now looked at the imperial family with something he had never seen before... a spark of awakening!

It was much the same in the Star Luo Empire.

Its emperor stared at the Firmament and, for the first time, felt as though he had fallen into an ice pit, chilled to the bone.

The Yu Xiaogang in the Firmament was ten thousand times more terrifying than a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!

At the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi had lost all his former elegance. Slumped in a chair, he gripped his hair with both hands and muttered over and over, "A declaration of equal rights... universal education... If these ideas really spread across the continent, the Upper Three Sects will have no sense of superiority left! The prestige we've built over centuries will be swallowed up by the commoners in an instant!"

But just when everyone around him thought he would keep falling apart, Ning Fengzhi suddenly stopped.

"Wait... If we can't stop these ideas, then we find a way to join the movement."

Ning Fengzhi lowered his voice until only Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo could hear. "The man in the Firmament says he wants to overthrow the old nobility, but he also says the virtuous should hold power. Whatever else you say about the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, we rose through support-type Soul Masters. We've oppressed commoners far less than the two empires or Spirit Hall have."

"Sect Master, do you mean..." Bone Douluo Gu Rong frowned.

Ning Fengzhi's eyes flickered. "Not yet! Let's see how Spirit Hall and the two empires respond. But there is one thing you must do now—secretly send people to buy up every book and handwritten copy on the basic theory of Soul Power cultivation, especially the commoners' cultivation notes the great sects treat as forbidden texts."

Sword Douluo Chen Xin raised an eyebrow. "Sect Master, are you planning to..."

"Prepare for the worst." Some of Ning Fengzhi's usual composure returned to his voice. "If this tide of equal rights truly comes, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect cannot be the levee it washes away. We must be the boat that knows the waters are rising before they do."

Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo exchanged a glance. Each saw deep shock in the other's eyes.

Faced with a Titled Douluo, they would dare draw their swords!

But faced with this "dragon-slaying art" that could awaken the minds of commoners across the continent, they lacked even the courage to draw them. And now their sect master was already considering how to survive this storm of ideas—and perhaps even rise on its winds.

Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, Thunder Hall.

Yu Yuanzhen stood outside the hall, listening to the words "abolish hereditary succession in the sects" coming from the Firmament. His face was livid.

Behind him, the family elders were as silent as cicadas in winter. They even softened their breathing.

"Recall every direct-line descendant under twenty to the sect! Starting tomorrow, close our doors to visitors."

"Sect Master, why?" one elder could not help asking.

"A storm is coming! Until we know which way the wind is blowing, no one in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect is to act rashly."

As the two empires and the Upper Three Sects were frightened out of their wits...

Deep within the most sacred, inviolable Worship Hall in Spirit City.

Beneath a hundred-meter statue of the Six-Winged Angel, Angel Douluo Qian Daoliu opened his eyes. A peerless level-ninety-nine powerhouse, he had sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, paying no heed to worldly affairs for decades.

He did not lose his composure like the others, nor did he cry out. He merely watched the young man speaking so freely in the Firmament with pale-gold eyes that had witnessed three hundred years of change.

Six dazzling angel wings spread slightly behind him. With his awakening, the air throughout the Worship Hall grew unusually heavy.

"Universal education... a declaration of equal rights... abolishing hereditary succession..."

Qian Daoliu murmured the phrases in an utterly even voice, yet the elders standing nearest him heard a chill in it that ran down their spines.

"Great Enshrined... this man is misleading the people with dangerous words. Should we...?" one enshrined ventured.

Qian Daoliu did not answer. His pale-gold eyes remained fixed on the Firmament.

Only after a long while did he quietly say:

"Every word that boy says is true."

The enshrined elders froze.

"The continent's commoners have indeed been oppressed for tens of thousands of years. And Spirit Hall... has indeed done just as he says, using the banner of free services to pick out cannon fodder."

"That is why he is all the more dangerous. Lies can only fool the foolish, but the truth can rouse an entire continent."

He slowly turned his back on the Firmament and swept his gaze over every enshrined elder present.

"If this man appeared in the real world, do you think Spirit Hall alone could hold back that tide of public anger?"

No one dared answer.

Qian Daoliu looked up at the young man in the Firmament again. His gaze had become like a sharp sword hanging overhead, yet to fall.

"Investigate. Find out exactly what power stands behind this Firmament. And have Bibi Dong come see me."

His unfathomable calm seemed to lower the temperature throughout the Worship Hall.

With his calculated response, the man widely acknowledged as the continent's strongest had sent everyone a clear signal—the young man in the Firmament had caught the eye of Spirit Hall's highest authority.

And Qian Daoliu would do only one thing: find the person moving the pieces before the chessboard was fully set.

Just as Qian Daoliu's orders spread through the Worship Hall, the audience approval vote on the Firmament's system scoreboard set off a shrill "beep, beep, beep" alarm as the numbers shot beyond the limit.

The commoners and low-ranking Soul Masters across the continent went wild!

Lin Fan had no idea what a storm his few words had stirred up outside.

He set down the parchment in his hand and turned to look out the window.

The setting sun was slowly sinking behind the distant mountains, staining half the sky bloodred.

Something suddenly came to mind, and he pulled from his robe the battered letter he had casually tossed aside earlier.

"Dong'er, if I hadn't left that day..."

Lin Fan's gaze lingered on that half-written line for a long time.

Then he slowly folded the letter and tucked it back inside his robe.

"This game... really knows how to write a script."

His voice was so soft the wind nearly carried it away.

A self-mocking smile tugged at his lips, but the carefree ease he had worn before was gone.